/*
 * Copyright 2007 - The JDPF Project Team (http://www.jdpf.org) 
 * 
 * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); 
 * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License. 
 * You may obtain a copy of the License at 
 * 
 * http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0 
 * 
 * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software 
 * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, 
 * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
 * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and 
 * limitations under the License. 
 */
package org.jdpf.core.kernel.plugins;

/**
 * Interface a block should implement to make itself visible to a process 
 * status monitor.
 * The interface provides all methods a process status monitor needs to control 
 * and describe how the data elaboration is running in each block.
 * The logic of the methods should depend on the algorithm, the data-type and 
 * the parameters the block handles.
 * 
 * @author <a href="mailto:farina.bruno@gmail.com">Bruno Farina</a>
 * @author <a href="mailto:pollizzio@gmail.com">Paolo Mauri</a>
 *
 */
public interface IMonitoredService{
    /** Method use to get a string description of the actual process status 
     * of the block.
     * 
     * @return A string describing the process status of the block
     */
    public String getProcessStatusString();
    
    /** Method to get a number usually representing the actual percentage of 
     * elaborated input data. 
     * @return Percentage of elaborated data.
     */
    public double getProcessStatusDouble();
    
    /**
     * Method to reset the process status of the service;
     */
    public void resetProcessStatus();
}
